Benefits of Becoming Friends with your College Professors

Well, it’s just one of those little things that people don’t seem to think about while they’re in college. Become friends with your professors. The most typical student in college takes classes just because they have to but fail to realize the importance of establishing a good relationship with the teacher. Most of the time, the professor is solely viewed as an educational instructor and nothing more. Getting to know them can actually be very beneficial to you in the long run. Why is that?

1.) They are professionals in their field, which means connections

No matter what you say, you cannot deny that they are teaching whatever course you’re in for a reason. Be it a graduate student or a full fledged professor with tenure, they are qualified to teach that course and are supposedly experts in their respective fields. Being experts in their field must mean that they know a lot of people, which means getting to know them means more connections for you.

What I mean by connections are career connections. Befriending your professor could mean a possible internship or job opportunity for you if he/she likes you. Professors want to see their students succeed, but the ones who go above and beyond and actually leave a lasting impression on them will get rewarded with career connections. Trust me on this, it works!

2.) Great for graduate school

If your track after college is to not go into the work force and instead attend graduate school then your professors is an excellent resource for you to utilize. Everyone needs a letter of recommendations (LOR) in order to apply for graduate school. How are you going to get your LORs if you don’t know any professors? Scratch that, because I know most people will find a way to get a professor who rarely knows them to write one, but question is how good will that LOR be? Well I can tell right now that if your professor didn’t know you very well, there’s really not that much that they can write about you besides all the general things:

“Bright and talented student, did well in my class.”

“Hard worker, came to class early!”

“Um…..”

They wouldn’t literally say these things but a rendition of them they sure will. The types of things you want them to write are:

“Such an amazing individual. Extremely passionate about what he/she does and will benefit any university and graduate program that they enter.”

“Learned so much through them and was a pleasure getting to know. A great people person and an extremely hard worker in my class. Always saw them excel and go above and beyond what was required.”

Doesn’t that sound so much better? Trust me on this, those second set of quotes are more likely what they’d be willing to write if they knew more about you. They even may throw in a “highly recommended” quote. A well-written LOR from a professor is a BIG plus for you.

I said “trust me on this” multiple times in this post. That’s because I’m speaking from experience. This method works! Moral of the story? Professors are your best friends for your future careers. USE THEM!!!!